It’s a familiar scenario: Talented student mentored by world-renowned artist launches promising career and then has children. End of story.

Or is it? For most women in the arts, particularly women of a certain age, motherhood has a tendency to insert itself between talent and mastery. Some give up the creative pursuit altogether.... Read more

For all its ambitious breadth, with artworks on four floors of Burlington’s Firehouse Gallery and sites beyond, “Human = Landscape” finds its strength in individual artworks of particular resonance. That’s because, as a whole, the exhibit does not fully answer the questions it poses: “How might an energy-sustainable, rural landscape of the future look? What defines a landscape as ‘beautiful’ or ‘ugly’?... Read more

If any single artwork in the Firehouse Gallery’s “Human = Landscape” allows viewers to absorb at a glance the rationale for this eco-conscious show, it’s “Galveston, TX.” The light jet print by photographer Alex S. Maclean shows a development of McMansions built in tight concentric rings with engineered water frontage. The arrangement allows each home to have its own dock, albeit little land.... Read more

Few migrations in human history have been as extensive as the march of Europeans across the North American continent through the United States and eastern Canada. As these newcomers altered the environment, dominated other cultures and gradually redefined their own identities to become “Americans” and “Canadians,” they also carried the fine arts of Western civilization to the Pacific.... Read more

A modest group exhibition at Feick Fine Arts Center, on the campus of Green Mountain College, appears through August 28 in the scenic town of Poultney. The show is unpretentiously called “Summer Group Show: Local Artists” — akin to “VFW Ham Supper” or “Pancake Breakfast” — but it does offer a few surprises.... Read more

Shows by so-called “emerging” artists are often filled with undeveloped ideas and brash experiments. Such is not the case with “Masterworks,” currently on view at BigTown Gallery in Rochester, Vt. This is a dynamic exhibition showcasing six of New England’s most distinguished, mature artists — the youngest painter in the group was born in 1930. The works, however, are fairly recent; all but two pieces were created since 2000.... Read more

Rain or shine, Stowe becomes a sculpture park in late summer thanks to the Helen Day Art Center’s annual “Exposed!” exhibition. The 2009 installment differs from the previous 17 in that a larger portion of the show than usual is indoors. It’s not because of Vermont’s ongoing monsoon this summer, but owing to construction on the HDAC building and grounds. Fourteen regional artists are showing work in the gallery, while 20 others have installed theirs outdoors.... Read more

For the first two weeks of July, Burlington artist Jane Horner took over the Flynndog gallery and made it her studio. The result of her labors is a sprawling show that gathers disparate elements into an aesthetically unified whole. Called “Intermediaries,” the exhibition includes a 25-by-3-foot roll of figure drawings, seven paintings, a substantial installation and a host of assemblages of varying scale.... Read more

The “secrets” referenced in the title “Secret Stories” may be simply narratives bundled less than obviously in the works featured in the current exhibit at Stowe’s West Branch Gallery & Sculpture Park. It’s certainly no secret that the drawings and paintings were made by masterful technicians: Sumru Tekin and Giovanna Cecchetti.... Read more

Hand weaving has, for all practical purposes, become a lost art. With the exception of the Harris tweed jacket — a “good find” staple of local rummage sales — few examples of handwoven clothing are still worn by the masses. The textile industry of the 19th century freed Western women from the loom and, eventually, the sewing machine.... Read more